Tokens from the Roman province of Britannia

Tokens were a widespread phenomenon across the Roman Empire, but often the diverse and vital role that they played in everyday life in the ancient world is not acknowledged or explored to its full potential. Tokens vary widely on a province by province basis in terms of their appearance and function, and whilst they are numerous in some areas, which have clear subsets of material, the picture in Britannia is not easily discernible. This lecture will therefore examine what exactly constituted a token in Roman Britain, as well as exploring the types of site on which they are found, and considering how they may have functioned in this province.